My new Web site: www.ninakeim.com

You can read and download a PDF copy of the field report on the CSM Website.

• Strategize first, then communicate: Although appearing to be a “given” one, one cannot underscore this point often enough. No matter what communication effort will be launched, creating a detailed strategic plan is crucial to guarantee an efficient and (hopefully) effective campaign. Specific to social media is an engagement strategy that defines utility and usability of the tools. In order to increase audience engagement through social media it is important to create an environment in which users feel comfortable in. Utility and usability are key.
• Be credible: Each successful word-of-mouth effort is based on credible sources. Clear disclosure of the source’s affiliation and position is crucial to win the trust of audiences. The recently launched FTC guidelines made disclosure a requirement and should be respected.
• Explore, experiment, and learn: New social media tools and applications emerge daily. With unlimited opportunities to integrate social media in the client’s communication, experts need to know exactly what is out there to make solid recommendations to clients. The sky is the limit, so explore, experiment, and learn about social media.
• Success is based on numbers: We just learned that there are unlimited ways to integrate social media in communication campaigns. So, should every single one be used? Of course not! (How I love rhetorical questions) At the end of the day clients want to see how successful the campaign was. So when choosing social media tactics, experts should stay away from those tactics that don’t allow a measurement for success. Setting clear goals and making evaluation a integral part of the strategic plan can help to provide the clients with the documentation of success they request.

Colleague: Nina Keim.  I met Nina as a Graduate student at American University (maybe Classmate is a better title), and have always been impressed by her initiative.  Unlike some of my peers, Nina displays an endless curiosity; she seeks out new ideas in communication and isn’t afraid to try them out for herself, often before their value is readily apparent.  Rather than merely acting as an informer, Nina embodies the role of an opinion leader in her own right.

Matthew is pretty active on Twitter. Follow him at @MattHurst. His Blog Matthew Hurst is Public deserves the same attention.

Increasing Engagement Through Social Media

December 1, 2009 marked World AIDS Day. Three German non-profit organizations teamed up to start “Zeig Schleife” (show a ribbon) – an initiative to educate and inform about AIDS, increase solidarity for affected, and promote the use of condoms.  One goal of the campaign was to actively engage the target audiences through social media thereby not only leveraging Web 2.0 tools to spread the message but also increasing the feeling of ownership and personal contribution to the campaign among the audiences.

Through Facebook, Twitter and other social media applications, users were asked to show solidarity and “wear a virtual red ribbon” by adding a small icon (twibbon) to their profile photos. The Twitter application also made it possible to directly post a new tweet in red font.  I was fascinated by the focus on usability of the applications. Every step in the process such as changing the profile picture, posting a message to the wall, or sharing the information with others was made as easy to execute as possible. I think, Twibbons are a great way to promote awareness on Twitter. With a simple click on the icon, users can make a powerful online statement, speak up and share causes with others. Thumbs up for the use of social media in the scope of the  “Zeig Schleife” initiative. It is important to meet the audiences where they already are. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, or StudiVZ are definetely places where young audiences can be reached.

The second day of Public Media Camp started right there where the first day left off. I met interesting people, learned about new forms of community engagement and crowd-sourcing and was introduced to technical programs, applications and resources I had not known about before. To use Andy Carvin’s words from the wrap up session: My brain is exploding of the great new ideas I gained at Pubcamp.

Wrapping up two great days of an uncoference full of dialogue, collaboration and active engagement, here are my impressions of day two:

• “I love engage” – Engagement is key. I will be proudly wearing the pins PBS brought to the conference.
• UGC – stands for ‘user-generated content’
• Pipes.yahoo.com – Pipes is a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web.
• Using the metaphor of a ‘trust cloud’ www.trustmap.org is as a tool to express trust in someone on Twitter. This is specifically important when dealing with crowd-sourced information where credibility of sources is a big question.
• Crowd-sourcing projects are easier established for breaking news events (election, hurricane) than for ongoing issues (health care debate).
• Twitter is addictive – in an environment where everyone is enthusiastic about tweeting, not jumping on the train and using Twitter can lead to missing out on information. I added many new Tweeps to my list and connected to great thinkers via Twitter.

Please Tag Yourself: Starting at 10 AM this morning, all participants were asked to introduce themselves by name, affiliation and three tags that characterize them. It took about 45 minutes to get through all participants, but it is definitely a perfect way of getting to know some interesting details about new people. My tags were: “public communication” – “social-issue documentaries” – “public diplomacy.”

Collaborative Schedule: For a German like me, not having a prepared schedule of sessions left me a bit out in the open. But throughout the presentation round, topics were introduced and sessions proposed. So shortly after the opening session, the schedule for day 1 was ready. As it is common for an unconference, posteds were used to keep track of proposed sessions. I like being able to influence the schedule. It gives the whole event a personal, collaborative note and interest in the sessions is guaranteed. Only introverts might face a problem here. You really have to raise your voice and participate, otherwise you might not find your personal interest represented in the sessions.

Things I learned today (bullet-point style):

• Favorite quote characterizing the core idea of an unconference:  “Why isn’t there a sign of where the bathrooms are – it’s because you didn’t put one up yet.”
• Drupal is a distributed open Web development network
• The role of citizen journalists is yet to be defined. There appears to be a big culture clash between NPR/PBS professional journalists and the citizen journalists.
• Sadly, many public media projects only use Google Analytics to measure their media’s impact. Especially if you are aiming for social change, there need to be other methods implemented to measure and track impact.
• Collaboration is such a great thing. I wish the concept of public media would be as popular in Germany as well.

For the next two days I will be attending Public Media Camp. PublicMediaCamp (PubCamp) is an initiative to strengthen the relationship that public broadcasters have with their communities through the creation of collaborative projects. Beginning with the national kickoff event in Washington, DC scheduled for October 17th-18th, 2009, PubCamp will be followed by local events hosted by participating stations. NPR, PBS, and American University Center for Social Media will host the launch event in conjunction with iStrategyLabs.

PublicMediaCamp is going to be organized as an unconference – a term I had not been familiar with previously. I quickly learned that an unconference is an event without a rigid, top-down programmatic structure, with the sessions organized by the participants themselves. We’re modeling it on other unconferences like Barcamp and Podcamp, which have successfully spawned similar volunteer-driven events around the world, as well as public media unconferences that have been hosted by Minnesota Public Radio and KUSP in Santa Cruz, CA.

I am excited to meet interesting people and learn about new ways public media can actively engage publics. The official Twitter hashtag for the event is #pubcamp. So log on and get a real time impression of what is going on at PubCamp.

WOMMA defines word of mouth marketing as the “most effective form of marketing in existence as it combines the newest strategies, tactics, and channels with the most basic human behavior: People like to talk!”

Opinion leaders have a central role to advance a positive word of mouth about a brand or an issue. They are well connected individuals that have an audience and a voice people listen to. Opinion leaders can serve as message multipliers forwarding the information to a large crowd of followers.

While in the “old” – offline – world Oprah, Steve Jobbs and Al Gore can be considered as issue specific influencers, Larry Weintraub argued that the virtual world comes with a whole new set of opinion leaders. Perez Hilton, Adam Carolla, and Heather Armstrong are just a few very powerful examples of individuals with a powerful voice in the online sphere.

What was most striking to me throughout the Webinar was the introduction of Mommy Bloggers and Daddy Bloggers. Mommy bloggers have a very powerful voice when it comes to toys, diapers and education related issues. Daddy bloggers are your influencers if you market sports, beer or electronic products. If you bring the mommies and daddies on your side, you can be sure that they will recommend your product. However, if your product has flaws, you can be sure that the influencers spread this message just as quickly.

Panelists at the Social Media Club event on 9/16

Panelists included Catherine Andrews, Editorial Director at Washingtonian, Cindy Boren, Deputy Sports Editor at The Washington Post, and Rick Dunham, Washington Bureau Chief of The Houston Chronicle & Hearst Newspapers. All panelists agreed especially on the benefits of Twitter for traditional media outlets: Twitter is a indispensable broadcasting tool in today’s media landscape that allows them to reach a wide, younger and more tech-savvy audience in real time.  On the other side, engaging in social media requires clear ethical standards from journalists to keep their neutral standpoint.

Is it “ok” to become a fan of a left of right politician? Can I befriend them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter? According to the panel, following and befriending politicians on Facebook and Twitter is necessary to cover a certain beat; however, journalists need to be cautious not to become supporters of only one side of the political spectrum. Moreover, distinctions between befriending a politician and becoming a supporter or “fan” of a certain campaign are two different things in the Facebook world. As long as journalists are using the friendship as an informational source, it’s fine. When it comes to openly supporting causes or campaigns, the argument of bias can be made.

I especially liked this fine distinction. It shows how much difference every single step in the online – social media – world can make. Social media provide multiple opportunities for journalists to find informational sources. And yet, checking and verifying sources becomes more difficult.In the end, everything has its advantages and disadvantages, and social media make the media landscape more interesting and engaging.